Arizona Diamondbacks: Will Zack Greinke be ready for opening day?
Though Zack Greinke will likely start the season for the Arizona Diamondbacks, questions persist.
Once a given, now the certainty of whether right-hander Zack Greinke will start for the Arizona Diamondbacks: Will Greinke be ready for opening day? The opening day starter is very much an uncertainty. That was the assessment manager Torey Lovullo told Call to the Pen Sunday before a scheduled Cactus League game with the Chicago White Sox. The basis of this doubt lays in Greinke’s assessment.
In conversations with the media after starts this spring, Greinke continually voiced concern over velocity of his fastball. Rarely reaching 90 miles-per-hour, Greinke’s velo instead was clocked in the upper 80s. Given the burden of having the perfect location with that kind of speed, questions remain as to Greinke’s readiness.
Speaking with Call to the Pen Sunday, Lovullo indicated no decision’s made about opening day, and conversations with Greinke remain on-going. With just over two weeks remaining in spring training, there is a sense of urgency, but Lovullo pointed out there is still time to receive a definitive answer.
“Just listing to some of the concerns, (Greinke) is concerned about this velocity,” he said. “There are a whole bunch of moving parts to this equation. We’ll let everything settle down, get some input from Zack and see where he is in this process. Once we finalize that, we’ll announce who (the starter) will be.”
Should Greinke not be in a position to feel effective by March 29, his history of the last two opening nights with Arizona could serve as a compelling chronicle.
Opening the season at home in 2016, Greinke was rocked by the Colorado Rockies and touched for nine hits and seven runs, all earned, in taking a 10-5 defeat. In going only four innings, Greinke’s pitch count reached 82 for that short period of work. Rox shortstop Trevor Story touched Greinke for two homers in that game and became the first player in MLB history to hit two homers in his major league debut and on opening day.
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The next year, and nearly similar results. Though he earned a no-decision, Greinke left a game with the Giants at home and trailed 2-0. For his five innings that day, Greinke also sustained an elevated pitch count and recorded 92 pitches for his 2017 opening day effect.
Here in spring training, Greinke will next pitch on Wednesday for the Diamondbacks, and at his point, Lovullo told Call to the Pen that it is uncertain if he will go against the Cincinnati Reds in the regularly scheduled game or get his work in on a backfield of the Salt River complex
Regarding his starter for opening day, Lovullo pointed out to Call to the Pen that the pitcher he has in mind is obvious, and that pitcher is Greinke.
“We have really one good candidate and everybody knows who it is,” he said. “He has some concerns and we want to listen to those concerns. We want to make sure that he’s comfortable. Not that he’s hurt and not concerned with anything like that. We’re concerned how he feels, and I want to listen to that right now.”
On Monday, the Diamondbacks face the Colorado Rockies, another NL West Division opponent at Salt River. In holding back starters against divisional opponents in spring games, Zack Godley, who sports a 0.00 ERA for his three spring starts thus far, will not go against the Rox.
Instead, he will throw against a group of Arizona minor leaguers on a back field at Salt River. Instead, Kris Medlen will start, and Andrew Chafin, Antonio Bastardo, Neftali Feliz and Brad Boxberger are expected to follow.
After a day off Tuesday, the spring slate resume at Salt River with a game against Cincinnati.
Next: Taijuan Walker’s learning from the past
On the trainer’s table …
After a bullpen session Saturday, right-hander Randall Delgado felt discomfort on his left side and near his left oblique. The medical staff decided to shut down Delgado until mid-week and Lovullo told Call to the Pen, “this is nothing to be alarmed.” Rest is ordered, and Lovullo believes Delgado could be ready for opening day.